Final Destination 3 Review: The First “Final Destination” was quite good and had an interesting new premise for horror. “Final Destination 2” was a major improvement, right from the horrific opening scene on the highway, to the unusual cast which surprisingly for horror did not consist mostly of teens or young twenty-something year-olds. “Final Destination 3” however, returns to the teen cast and is equal, if not better to “Final Destination 2”. The cast of “Final Destination 3” are terrific, particularly Mary Elizabeth Winstead who plays heroine Wendy, definitely one of the best horror-heroines of the past several years. It was she who had the premonition and caused herself and several others to get off the roller coaster, and must ally herself with Ryan Merriman’s Kevin, someone she doesn’t particularly like, to fight Death.

In “Final Destination 3”, Merriman does a great job too. Jesse Moss who plays Wendy’s boyfriend, Jason and Gina Holden who plays Kevin’s girlfriend Carrie are also both very good. Amanda Crew doesn’t get enough screen time as Wendy’s younger sister Julie, though in her few scenes she is outstanding. Alexz Johnson is great as the sarcastic Erin (and gets the most shocking death), Kris Lemche is good as McKinley, Texas Battle is okay as Lewis and Sam Easton is good, but highly annoying, as Frankie. However it is scene-stealing Chelan Simmons and Crystal Lowe who deserve extra credit for their performances as Ashley and Ashlyn respectively. Both girls are incredibly humorous, good looking and have a very interesting death scene – I should note though, that their death scene was done first, and with a dude, in “Urban Legend 3: Bloody Mary”.

Typical horror conventions are followed (little to no authority figures) and the film flows at a good steady pace, a great soundtrack, and terrific special effects. However, two very interesting points of note: firstly, unlike many horrors where you can pretty much guess who is going to die as soon as you are introduced to them, “Final Destination 3” shakes things up a little by not following that general “rule” (more horror films should also ignore this “rule”). Secondly, a shocking ending. I was beyond surprised, and quite frankly a bit disappointed (not with the ending, but just because that was the ending. All in all, a fantastic story and terrific cast make for perhaps the best entry in the “Final Destination” franchise – but if there is a fourth, will it be able to live up to the success of this one?